On November 1, Oman telco Nawras witnessed the first day of the trading of its shares on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM), following the completion of its IPO, which raised a total of OMR 182 million (US$472 million). Based on the listing price of Bzs 702 the initial market capitalisation of Nawras was OMR 456 million. At the end of the first day of trading shares closed at Bzs 740 per share, following 8.4 million shares traded, increasing the company’s market capitalisation to OMR 480.6 million.

Late last week Nawras announced the offer price for shares would be set at Bzs 702 per share, which represents the low-end of the Bzs 702 – Bzs 902 guidance detailed in its prospectus.

Following the IPO, 40 per cent of the shares will be in free float, with the Qtel subsidiary retaining 55 per cent of the company, and five per cent held by the original Omani pension funds.

Wataniya Palestine Mobile Telecommunications (Wataniya Mobile), the second licensed mobile telecom company in Palestine, today announced its intention to undertake an initial public offering (IPO) of 15 per cent of its shares followed by a listing on the Palestine Exchange.

Offer period is from November 7 until December 2, 2010

• 38.7 million new shares to be sold – no selldown by existing shareholders at the time of IPO
• Fixed offer price of US$1.30 per share
• IPO to raise US$50.3 million
• Indicative market capitalisation of US$335.4 million
• Retail investors in Palestine to subscribe at branches of HSBC, Arab Bank, Bank of Palestine, Palestine Commercial Bank, Palestine Islamic Bank, Qatar National Bank and Quds Bank
• All proceeds to be used for general business and operational purposes, and to assist the funding of the balance of fees payable under the company’s operating licence

Launched in November 2009, Wataniya Mobile is the second mobile telecom company to have been licensed in Palestine, and currently covers 95 per cent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank.

Total subscriber figures reached 110,835 as at end-December, within six weeks of launching operations, and have subsequently reached 302,404 subscribers as at end-September 2010. This represents a mobile market share in the West Bank of approximately 19 per cent.

Wataniya Mobile is licensed to operate in Gaza; however, due to the existing political situation the company has not currently commenced operations there. The cellco has started planning and preparations for building a network in Gaza, and the intention is to launch in Gaza as soon as practicable.

Existing shareholders in Wataniya Mobile are Qtel Group and the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF). Qtel holds its interest in Wataniya Mobile through a chain of subsidiary companies, which includes National Mobile Telecommunications Company (NMTC). NMTC is a leading international telecommunications company in its own right and is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.

PIF is a US$850 million investment fund and the largest investor in the Palestinian economy.

The initial plan at the launch of the operation was for 30 per cent of Wataniya Mobile to be IPOed with NMTC holding a 40 per cent stake and 30 per cent would be held by the PIF.

In the nine month period to end-September 2010, the mobile operator generated revenues of US$24.7 million, while revenues for the third quarter of 2010 amounted to US$11.55 million compared to US$9.12 million for the second quarter of the year.

According to Strategy Analytics, global handset shipments grew 13 per cent annually to reach 327 million units in the third quarter of 2010. Apple was a star performer, as it jumped into the top five handset rankings for the first time.

According to the research firm, Apple captured a record four per cent market share, overtook RIM and Sony Ericsson and closed the gap on LG.

Some brands were described as having outperformed, such as Apple, while others underperformed, such as LG and Nokia. LG was said to have lost ground due to a weak smartphone portfolio, while Nokia suffered component shortages that constrained its low-end handset volumes by an estimated several million units.

Other findings from the research include:

• Samsung shipped 71.4 million handsets worldwide during Q310, rising 19 per cent from 60.2 million units a year earlier. Samsung’s global market share reached 22 per cent in Q310. Samsung continues to edge ahead of LG ( nine per cent) and it is just 12 points behind Nokia (34 per cent), the closest it has ever been;
• There is a long tail of second-tier players emerging that are knocking on the doors of the top five players. ZTE, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Huawei and Alcatel are all shipping volumes that are within touching distance of the leading group.

While cloud computing has existed for a number of years, the concepts and workings it espouses have become increasingly popular recently, leading to some misunderstanding of what is encompassed under the term. Its definition remains quite wide, though service providers and enterprises have started to make concrete steps towards utilising its core components

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Mobile augmented reality allows computer-generated content to be superimposed over a live camera view of the world. The technology and its applications have been under development for a number of years, though it is in 2010 and that more applications are expected to proliferate on mobile devices, and monetisation of such services is expected to gain traction

Juniper Research says revenues from augmented reality are unlikely to exceed US$2 million in 2010, due to there being only a small minority of smartphones that are AR-enabled

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